PS5's April Update Includes External USB Drive Support And More

Sony just announced that the next big update for the PS5 will be rolling out tomorrow, and with it comes a slew of new features and improvements, including storage expansion support through external USB drives, a sought out feature for many players since the console’s launch last year.

This is an option to expand your storage but it isn’t advised to play your PS5 games through an external hard drives. It simply needs to be used as extra storage and nothing else as the internal storage is used to run and download games.

Here’s how Sony explains it in their post.

“With this feature, you can now transfer your PS5 games to USB extended storage from your console’s internal storage. It’s a great way to extend the storage capabilities of your PS5 console, and you can seamlessly copy your PS5 games back to the console’s internal storage when you’re ready to play. It is faster to reinstall PS5 games from USB extended storage than to re-download or copy them from a disc.”

“Because PS5 games are designed to take advantage of the console’s ultra high-speed SSD, PS5 titles can’t be played from USB extended storage. PS5 titles also cannot be directly downloaded to USB extended storage. However, games that you transfer or copy back to internal storage will automatically update when applicable. In addition, you can select which game modes you want to install (such as campaign or multiplayer) for select titles that support the option.”

In this update, PS5 will not support storage expansions through M.2 drives but mentioned that it will be supported in the future.

New Social features for PS4 and PS5 consoles

Cross-generation Share Play will be available for both PS4 and PS5 systems, giving players the opportunity to share their game screen for friends to watch your gameplay, you can even allow a PS4 owner try out a PS5 game through the Share Play feature.

You can now also utilize the “Request to Join” feature, which is considered a quick way to jump into a friend’s game sessions , a form of shortcut to get into the game quickly.

The April update also improves other features found in the PS5. Here’s a quick rundown from Sony.

• Improved Game Base. The Game Base menu has been improved for quicker access to important content and features. You can now easily switch between Parties and Friends to start chatting with your existing parties or see what each of your online friends is up to. In addition, you can turn notifications on or off for each of the parties you’re in.

• Disable Game Chat or Adjust Players’ Volume. You can now quickly disable in-game chat, which turns off your mic audio and the voice audio of other players. Additionally, you can easily adjust the individual voice chat volume of other players in the same chat so you don’t have to ask your friends to lower or increase their mic volume each time.
  

• Game Update Pre-download. Once it’s enabled by developers, title updates for games will pre-download to your console if the “automatic updates” setting is enabled and your console is on or in rest mode. This will let you start playing the latest version of a game immediately after the update’s release.
  

• Customize Game Library. With the ability to search your library or hide games from view, it’s now easier to find content and personalize your view of your game library.
  

• Screen Zoom. You can now adjust the magnification of the screen to suit your preference from the Settings menu.
  

• New Trophy Settings and Stats Screen. The level of trophies that results in automatic capture of a screenshot or video clip can now be customized — so you can now choose to only capture and save images/videos of moments when you earn higher-grade trophies, like Gold or Platinum. We’re also introducing a new player Trophy Stats screen, where you can check out the summary of your trophy level and status at a glance.

So far, the upcoming update looks promising, especially with the external storage support. Hopefully it doesn’t spring new problems once players patch their PS5 systems tomorrow.

One of the biggest reported issue since the PS5’s release is when you use an external hard drive through the console’s rear USB port as players reported crashes and other problems.

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